Abstract

The Cornell Institute for Public Affairs fall 2011 domestic Capstone course was engaged in a project sponsored by the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce with the purpose of identifying ways to improve local government and intergovernmental cooperation. This project was divided into four core areas of research: local government charter revision, performance measurement systems for the Tompkins County (TC) government, TC budgeting processes, and opportunities for intermunicipal cooperation. Each group delved into the literature on their respective fields and acquired local perspectives of conditions in the region through interviews with various government officials from the Town of Ithaca, the City of Ithaca, and Tompkins County. Through research, each group developed recommendations for actions that we believe will improve local governments in Tompkins County. Executive summaries of each group’s findings are found at the beginning of each report.